Winning formula

T&L’s core values drive 40 successful years

T&L continues to expand with a new 138,000 sq foot Houston facility.

[Houston] After several straight years of sales decreasing for T&L Distributing, which celebrated its 40th Anniversary here in August, the trend is reversing. Company founder and chairman of the board Bob Thomas said that this isn’t the first time he has guided T&L through a deep recession and emerged ready to prosper.

“We’ve been impacted by the downturn like everyone else but not as bad when you look at markets like California that are down 50 percent to 60 percent,” said Thomas.

Sales at T&L Distributing remain 16.3 percent off from their 2006 high of $86 million but last year the company posted a 4.3 percent increase with sales at $72 million.

“Our culture is still the same and the next 40 years will be more positive than the past 40 provided the company maintains its conservatism and continues to tailor itself with product and services to fit the marketplace. Certainly the product being offered today is far better than at any other time in the history of floor covering,” Thomas said.

Beginning his career in 1958 at Stevens Co., a Houston-based flooring wholesaler, Thomas went on to purchase his first retail location, Spring Branch Floor Covering, in 1963 with partner Bernard Leadbetter. By 1972, the pair yearned to return to their wholesale roots, sold Spring Branch and immediately opened T&L Distributing. In 1975, Thomas bought out Leadbetter.

Originally established with carpet, T&L expanded into hard surface with Mannington sheet vinyl in 1974 and Kentile in 1980. Then Texas was hit with a debilitating recession as oil prices plunged to $19 a barrel and the Savings and Loan Crises collapsed banks and real estate values. But Thomas said T&L was spared by sheer luck.

“In 1983 we had a Christmas freeze that broke everyone’s pipes and there was a tremendous amount of replacement business that lasted six months,” he said. “And just as the freeze business ended we got hit with a hurricane that did tremendous damage and that carried us another six months. But by 1985 business shut down. A lot of distributors in our area packed up for good.”

Witnessing 12 of 19 surrounding distributors permanently close their doors, Thomas decided T&L’s only chance for survival was to expand — an aggressive approach that countered his natural conservatism.

In 1985, T&L opened a branch in Austin followed by moves into Dallas in 1986 and San Antonio in 1987. A location in Shreveport, La., followed in 1989.

“We’d go into a marketplace, rent a warehouse, set up an office facility and sell retailers in the area,” said Thomas. “We weren’t overly successful but we were able to hang on. We were doing considerably more business but over a much larger geographical area. It wasn’t terribly profitable. But when you see the writing on the wall, expansion was better than dying right there.”
T&L continued its expansion, moving into Baton Rouge and Oklahoma City in 2004. Today, T&L ranks No. 19 on FCW’s 2012 Top 25 Distributors and has added other hard surface brands such as Anderson, Estrie, Formica and RB Rubber.

“We transitioned from a carpet and cushion distributor to hard surface during the 2000s,” said Thomas. “We have one small commercial carpet tile program. Other than that we no longer have carpet, carpet cushion or related supplies. We focus on the main products of LVT, wood and laminate.”
Sam O’Krent, fourth generation owner of 97-year-old, San Antonio, Texas-based O’Krent’s Abbey Flooring Center, said T&L continues to thrive because it has mastered the fundamentals of successful partnerships.

“T&L has been a joy to work with all these years,” said O’Krent. “Their business philosophy is in line with ours: Take care of the customer and be professional. They know we won’t take advantage of them and, likewise, they have never taken advantage of us. We don’t take each other for granted. They’re a great service oriented company.”
John Godby, sales associate and business manager at 61-year-old Fort Worth, Texas-based Fort Worth Carpet Company, said T&L provides a great service to end users and manufacturers. “They represent their lines very well,” he said. “We’re getting the latest product information, training and quick service on all the products we need. They’re really hands on which helps us be better sales people. The more information we have, the more opportunities we can create.”
As for the future, Thomas is not overly concerned, saying manufacturers will always require independent distributors to transport cumbersome and diverse hard surfaces — and today’s home center-related challenges are no different than those presented in the past by the likes of Sears and Sherwin-Williams.

“If it’s not Home Depot and Lowe’s it would be some other entity,” he said. “These mass merchants don’t diminish what local dealers do, they amplify it. Each market is different with its own preference in colors and styles. It’s very regionalized and nobody is better positioned to serve it than local dealers. We’ll remain a conservatively managed company. Business won’t be gained with a whole lot of flash and dash.”
Thomas’ son Jeff, current president of T&L, said the two have spoken considerably about succession but that his father shows no signs of slowing down.

“I know he’s putting in these last years, focusing on our move to a bigger facility a couple miles away, because he thinks about [succession]. But he’s also one of these guys that enjoys working and has no plan to get out,” said Jeff Thomas, who entered the business after graduating from Texas A&M in 1995. T&L will host a ribbon cutting and grand opening celebration at its new 138,000 square foot Houston facility on Nov. 1.

“We have seen some of the best years in our market in 2006, 2007 and 2008; followed by very discouraging years in 2009 and 2010,” Jeff Thomas said. “At this point we feel like we have weathered the storm. Conditions are improving in our market. We are seeing growth, and are once again excited to think about the future.”